Books

March 2012 has been a tragic month for science fictions fans. First we saw the passing of Star Wars artist Ralph McQuarrie, followed closely by the passing of French comic book and SF movie visionary Jean ‘Moebius‘ Giraud. And as if both were not p...

The passing of Jean Giraud this weekend has shaken many science fiction and fantasy fans who are familiar with his work, and thanks to the nature of the internet and social media, intrigued many who are not. To the uninitiated the attention may seem ba...

Studio Ghibli is — much deservedly — probably the best known anime studio in the west. Spirited Away won the studio’s legendary co-founder Hayao Miyazaki an Oscar back in 2002, and The Secret World of Arrietty is currently wooing both critics and...

If you have even a passing interest in anime there’s a very high chance you know that Studio Ghibli’s latest offering, The Secret World of Arrietty, opens in U.S. theaters this Friday. What’s perhaps more surprising is that us fans here in the UK...

With giant battling robots being one of the first images to spring into people’s minds when you mention anime to them, it’s no surprise that military science fiction was for years one of the most popular genres in Japanese animation. In fact there

First off I’d just like to say a huge thank you to everyone that read my list of ten anime films you should see before you die – the response has been phenomenal – not just the number of people who read it, but also those who took the time out to...

Yeah, I know. You don’t like anime. It’s all big eyes and tentacle rape. You’ve seen enough to know you don’t need to see anymore, thank you very much.The problem with all that is you’ve not seen Redline.At least not yet. But you will see it....

Those of you that caught my last post — a review of Highschool of the Dead — may remember me explaining how anime tends to churn out the usual genre tropes — zombies, vampires, aliens... all the expected stuff. But occasionally it still manages t...

If, like me, you first encountered anime in the 1990s then the chances are they were science fiction, fantasy and horror stories that first attracted your attention. In fact for decades that was what the medium was most strongly associated with — fro...

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to a swanky location in London’s glamorous west end for anime distributor Manga UK’s 20th birthday party. Now for those of you outside the UK Manga may not be a familiar company, but on this si...

Hikaru Takabe is having trouble fitting in with the rest of the teenage girls at her high school. It could be because she’s just moved into town to live with her aunt after her father’s mysterious death, instantly making her “the new kid.&rdq...

One of the most surprising, and gratifying, things that has happened since I started my blog, Tim Maughan Books, a year or so ago is the positive feedback I’ve had for the anime reviews—especially from people I know are far from being massi...